A week...

It took me a week in-game to come up with an idea how to manage the damn Snowbolds and I truly needed to. I had been stalking in the woods and quite often I'd come upon them. If they found me, they attacked, if I got the drop on them, they retreated to their burrow and then struck back with overwhelming force. But my conflict with the Snowbolds and my vigorous hunting of wolves and even one bear, had paid off, as I was now level 9. Sadly, I only got 2 Attribute-Points on level 5, both went into Intelligence but the levels themselves increased my Health, Stamina and Astral Power, even if I had yet to care enough to figure out the formula. Similarly, the damage I dished out was increasing but I think quite a bit of damage was based on the enemy, for example a heavy bleeding was probably based on enemy size or health and other factors. Similarly, some enemies took more cold-damage from my frozen Icicles than others, especially the Snowbolds seemed to be vulnerable to cold and always hid during the long nights.

My skills were also coming along nicely, Ice Magic was now 23, Ice Rune-Mastery was 19, Darkness Rune-Mastery 15 and Blood Rune-Mastery was 17. Sadly, Blood Magic was only 4, I had yet to get a good Idea how to use it other than finishing helpless opponents or risking Soul Injuries which sounded seriously scary. What I had been able to do with it, was using the Blood of a living enemy to fuel a spell for me, at least until the enemy died. When Darkness Rune-Mastery had reached 10, I was able to infer another rune, this one Disorientation which then replaced one of the Concealment-Runes in my Mist Barrier. When Blood Rune Mastery had reached skill-level ten, I had gotten Regenerate, an advanced version of the Clot-Rune I'd used before which allowed for smoother and better healing.

I had also formalized most of my stable spells, getting better effects for doing so.

But my idea for the damn Snowbolds was based on their cowardly behaviour and vulnerability to cold.

The next time I'd run into two of them, I had used a new idea, a concealed darkness tentacle that would not damage but make them disoriented and chill their blood. It was a five Rune Spell and if I channelled it neither of my two victims realized it until both fell into hypothermic stupor. Then I simply walked up and dragged them with me, towards their burrow. They'd be batteries. As soon as I was in the vicinity, I heard chatter and saw them scurry into it.

Now, I needed to close the deal. I walked as close as I dared and I stabbed my first battery, electing little response from it, and with one hand on the shallow cut, I didn't want it to bleed out after all, I drew a Rune-Formation for the spell I had called Frozen Mist. It was a rather simple three Rune Spell, made up from Mist – Chill – Ice simply creating a freezing cold Mist that would hopefully cause the Snowbolds to simply hide deeper into their burrow.

Then I channelled the life-force of my battery into the spell, using Ice-Magic to direct it into their burrow. After five minutes, my battery gave up it's ghost, literally in that case and I swiftly switched batteries, I wanted to have my full Astral Power in case something went bad.

But after another five minutes of forcing them down, I guessed and hoped that they were in the depths of their burrow. Then I closed the entrance and part two came up, exterminate the burrow.

To do so, I had to risk quite a bit, I made small enclosure in the barrier that closed the entrance and sat down in it. Then I carved a small opening to get a spell inside but kept the piece to close it at hand. Then I cast a spell I'd called Mist of Death into the opening. Pretentious? As hell. Effective? Hopefully. It was a five Rune-Spell so to continuously channel it I had to get into a meditation-state which was the risk. I'd sit here, unable to react and hope that it worked.

The spell was made up from Mist – Concealment – Disorientation – Devour – Blood. The idea was to create an almost invisible, dark creeping mist that made them disoriented and slowly killed them. Insanely evil? Well, to be honest, I had the idea when channel surfing one time and seeing a documentation about World War 1 and the use of gas warfare. This world had no Hague Convention after all. Maybe it would need one?

I finished my spell and closed the gap as I was unable to control the Darkness, not possessing the Dark Magic skill or whatever was needed to do so. Then I let my mind go blank, keeping only the twin sensations of channelling Astral Power out of me into the spell and channelling the Power from the Astral River into my body. I managed to reach an equilibrium and held it. After about ten hours of continuous casting I got messages in the form of blue screens so I guess the combat had just ended. There was a smile on my face as I started reading.

Snowbold died You gain 25 EXP. For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain 3 Bonus EXP Snowbold died You gain 25 EXP. For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain 3 Bonus EXP Snowbold died . . . Snowbold Chieftain died You gain 300 EXP. For killing an opponent 30 levels above you you gain Bonus EXP For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP

It was a long list. Then my mind suddenly felt as if it was dipped in liquid fire.

You reached level 29

The fading pain and the elation combined and I burst out laughing.

Ok, I guess the pain is the price for rapid level ups.

Title gained You gained the titlel: Exterminator For single-handedly wiping out a tribal community to the last child, you gain the title Exterminator. People will look upon you in fear. May the Gods have mercy on your soul.

Ooops?

Title gained You gained the titlel: Magician of Annihilation For coming up with a new magical way of committing massacre, you gained the title Magician of Annihilation. Increases the EXP gained when using magic to annihilate large groups of opponents. Trait gained You gained a trait: Magician of Massacre Those who can use magic to kill large amounts of enemies are both revered and feared, depending which side they are on. When using magic to strike at large groups your skill-gains and the damage dealt are increased. Trait gained You gained a trait: Smiling Calamity Some beings are able to ruthlessly massacre other beings. Most of those who do so, see it as a last resort and only do so because circumstances forced them to. You are different. You have brought Calamity to others and done so with a smile. When committing massacre, you project a fear-aura. Trait gained You gained a trait: Combat Meditation You are able to clear your mind and enter a meditative state while around you, battle is waging. While in meditation you can only focus on few things which might be lethal in battle. Skill increased You increased your skill: Ice Rune-Mastery [25/100] Skill increased You increased your skill: Darkness Rune-Mastery [31/100] Skill increased You increased your skill: Blood Rune-Mastery [22/100] Skill increased You increased your skill: Blood Magic [5/100] Skill increased You increased your skill: Ice Magic [24/100] Skill increased You increased your skill: Astral Meditation [20/100]

All in all, very nice. I still had to search through the burrow but first, the level-ups had given me eight attribute-points. I decided to go with a placement of 4 Intelligence, 3 Intuition and 1 Vitality, that should give me the best results, not going full glass-cannon and neglecting my own survival. With that my Status looked like this:

Basic Overview Name Morgana Race Firn-Elf Level 29 Health 255/255 Stamina 92/261 Astral Power 224/763 Divine Power - Strength 9 Agility 13 Dexterity 12 Intelligence 23 Intuition 19 Charisma 9 Courage 13 Endurance 11 Vitality 12 Special Ability gained You gained a Special Ability: Rune Heptagon For being a Natural Mage and reaching 20 Intelligence, you gain the ability to link seven Runes into a single spell, increasing their possible uses and power. Special Ability gained You gained a Special Ability: Rune Projection For having 20 Intelligence or higher you gained an ability, based on you play-style. The ability Rune Projection allows you to instantly project runes into a Formation, without drawing them. The Astral Power Cost to project a rune is double it's normal cost. The amount of runes you can project into a Formation depends on your Intelligence. Instantly projectable runes: 1

Shiny, shiny, I just got insane skills. Rune Projection, if I'd be somehow able to increase my intelligence far enough, this would be the jackpot for true instant casting. And the Rune Heptagon, I could do so many insane things with that. And if my guess on Rune Meditation giving me new runes or maybe new rune-sets every ten skill-levels I'd get even more goodies as soon as I had some time.

But now, I should go and check out if those Snowbolds had treasure...